WrapThis year's festival consolidated the runaway success of 2012, without adding anything particularly new to the mix (not that it matters overmuch). Once again it was gamely curated by Jo Marsh, and its management and marketing were outstanding. The festival could really use a 3/400 capacity room to fill the gap between the main hall at the Astor and its next biggest venue, at the Mt Lawley Bowling Club, but that might be a hard ask unless they can get their hands on, say, one of Artrage’s spiegeltents, or go further afield from the Beaufort and Walcott precinct,and that would be a great shame.
For me Paul Foot's extraordinary performance at the opening gala and the legendary Bob
Downe's glorious Mother's Day show were the great highlights of the festival, and Lawrence Mooney, Jim
Jefferies, Jimmy McGhie, Joel Creasey and the festival’s surprise packet, Josie
Long, who took out the Best of the Fest award, were acts you’d go a long way to see. It’s great that we now don’t need
to.
I've mentioned before the impressive roster of Asian/Australian performers at the festival, and should also recognise the roster of local acts that more than held their own with their imported colleagues. Congratulations to Sami Shah (who is in both categories), a well-deserved winner of the Best Local Act award.
